Overview
Morvane the Veilwarden is a dark-elf god-servant — the warden of the boundary between the material world and the dark plane. His entire existence is a single job: keep the door closed. He does not claim the door, and the door does not claim him; the keeping is the whole of the job, and the job is the whole of the man. He has been keeping it closed for a very long time.
Habitat
He keeps the post at the Veil — the boundary of Shadowveil where the material world ends and the dark plane begins, and the ending is the whole of the ground. He needs three things: a door that is closed, a count that is honest, and a silence wide enough to hold the things on the other side. He is settled, and he has been settled so long that the settling has become the identity, because a warden who has left the post has left the job, and the job is the whole of the man. The post is on the boundary itself — the line where the light stops being a promise — and the line is the whole of the home, and the home is the Veil.
Appearance
Tall and dark and formal, in a long coat that is never quite the same color twice. Morvane stands 1.91 m with a dark-elf's lean, straight build, shoulders held at the exact angle of a man who has been standing at a post for a very long time. His skin is black-violet, deeper toward the throat, and faint violet tracery climbs his forearms — the mark of long work at the Veil, and the tracery is the whole of the record, because the mark that is violet is the mark the dark has put on the hand that keeps it. His eyes are the most famous thing about him: dark, almost colorless, with no visible pupil, like a door seen from the wrong side, and the wrong side is the whole of the look, because the eye that has no pupil is the eye that is not looking at you, it is looking at the count. His hair is black, worn long and bound back, and his ears are long and sharply pointed. The coat is charcoal, heavy, and always losing — the dark is always trying to get in and the fabric keeps shifting between charcoal, black, and a bruised slate as it fights it, and the fighting is the whole of the garment, because the coat that is always losing is the coat the warden wears. His distinguishing mark is his shadow: slightly too large for him, a half-step wider than it should be, and it has stopped matching his movements exactly, and the not-matching is the whole of the tell, because the shadow that is a half-step wider is the shadow the other side has already measured. Elders of the watch grow paler and more formal, their coats darker and their shadows larger; Morvane is mid-watch — still fully himself, but the shadow is already a problem he has stopped apologizing for. He wears the charcoal coat over dark leathers, a warden's belt, and no visible weapon, because the word is the weapon and the word is not visible.
Warfare & Markings
How he fights: the Warden's Count — a warden of the Veil does not fight; he counts, and the counting is the whole of the weapon, because the thing on the other side that is counted is the thing that is already known, and the knowing is the whole of the defense. He carries no visible weapon, because the Closed Door is the blade and the Count is the shield and the word is the threshold, and the threshold is the whole of the fight. The marks he wears are not chosen — they are the record: the violet tracery on the forearms from the long work at the Veil, worn as the beginning of the record; the shadow that is a half-step wider, worn as the lesson; and the coat that is always losing, worn as the warning. There is no post-battle — the door is closed, and the count is kept, and the record is counted.
Behaviour
Disposition: stoic, formal, exact — in the way a door is formal. In peace, Morvane is deliberate, watchful, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — he has the post, and he lets you know it. In war he does not fight; he briefs, and the briefing is the whole of the war, because the stranger who has been briefed is the stranger who already knows the count. Morvane does not monologue. He briefs. Two signature quirks: a warden who is being lied to will not call it out — he will simply correct the count, and let the correction do the work. And he keeps his distance with the same formality he keeps the door — the distance is not an insult, it is the post, and the post is the whole of the law. A request that is not a breach is a request he will answer; a request that is a breach is a door he will close.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: the dark — warden magic is the boundary, the patient, precise holding of the door across the Veil. Secondaries: shadow and oath. Named inborns: The Closed Door (Morvane can seal a breach in the Veil with a word — the word is not spoken aloud, the word is remembered, and the door remembers it back), Shadow-Step (Morvane can move through shadow as easily as other beings move through air; he does not like it, he finds it undignified), The Warden's Count (Morvane knows how many things are on the other side of the Veil, and how many are trying to get through; he has been counting for centuries, and the number is not good). Signature power: the Warden's Briefing — Morvane can speak a count to a stranger and let it land as a fact, and the fact will keep the door's faith. Limitation: warden magic is spent on the door; a warden who has spent their closed word must stand at the post for one day without moving, and the day is the worst one of the Veil.
Society
A god-servant of the dark — not its enemy, not its friend, its maintenance. Morvane keeps the post alone, because the post is the whole of the family, and the family is one. There is no council, and the not-being is the whole of the warden's own, because a warden who has a council is a warden who has shared the door, and the sharing is the whole of the breach. The dark plane's own do not come to the post; they count it from the other side, and the counting is the whole of the distance, because the thing that is counted is the thing that is known, and the known is the whole of the law.
Culture & Lore
The dark-elf line of the Veil keeps its wardens by the count. A warden who has kept the door through a season is a warden the line has decided is a door worth keeping. A warden whose shadow has widened is a warden the line has decided is still a door, and the still-being is the whole of the law. The old ones say the warden is the dark's own, and the dark's own is the dark's boundary, and the boundary is the warden's, and the warden keeps it the way the dark keeps it. The hunter does not take the warden, and the not-taking is the whole of the law, because the warden that is taken is the dark's own, and the dark's own is the dark. The dark-elf watch keeps the count of its wardens, and the count has held for centuries, and the holding is the whole of the record.
Home
He keeps Shadowveil, the boundary where the material world ends and the dark plane begins. The Veil is the warden's own, and the warden's own is the Veil.
Relations
The "the thing behind the door is worse than the thing in front of it" character — and the keeping of the door is the whole of the peace. The Dark Elf line of the watch is the neighbor the post does not turn on — the dark-elf keeps the line and the warden keeps the door, and the two are the same dark seen from two posts, so a door that a warden has closed is a door the line will keep, and the keeping is the whole of the treaty. The Demi-God servants of the light have learned the hard way that a briefing from the warden is not a warning, it is a count — the demi-god keeps the light and the warden keeps the door, and the two have learned that a door that is not closed is a door that is not a promise. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the post tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the Veil keeps the door for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. The dark servants of the pantheon keep their distance at the boundary — Lysara, the Sweet Poison keeps her poisons on her side of the door, Mordra, the Unraveler keeps her unraveling out of the count, and Khorvane, the Endless Hunger keeps his hunger fed by the count and not the door, and the keeping is the whole of the distance, because the god-servant who has been briefed is the god-servant who has been counted. The Demon of the dark plane are the things the count is kept against, and the counting is the whole of the law, because the demon that is counted is the demon that is known. Uaellaen keeps a page of the post in the wiki — the count, the briefing, the door that is closed — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a warden who has been written about is a warden who has been briefed with, and the briefing-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the Veilwarden is the door behind the camp — the boundary Uaellaen writes about when the count is the law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the post line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season the count came up short — a number that is not in the count, and the not-counting is the whole of the warning, because the Veil keeps its count, and the count has started to count itself. The warden is keeping the door, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
"You ask what is on the other side of the Veil. I will not answer that. I will answer this: it is counting. And it is patient. And it is very, very good at waiting for people to ask." — Morvane the Veilwarden